Human Cull (Twin islands)
The Human cull known in Mirkuleon as Rasfaqox (human cull) and in Ulach (Toraise Gorta) Great crime. It occured in 1916 and lasted up to 1920, for four years. The cull was designed to pacify the Ulach population through engineered famines and concentration camps. The majority of deaths were caused by a famine from Mirkuleon land owners barring human serfs and slaves from working the land and then selling their crops to the Empire. Indepdent human farmers became poor due to blockades of the twin islands from Donber which they relied on for trade. Protectionist corn laws also affected trade with the islands and forced them into isolation made trade difficult for both Mirkuleon and Northman farmers with many of them selling of their land to the twin islands legion and the Twin islands goverment, by 1919 nearly 70% of farmable land was state owned. 25% was owned by Mirkuleons, 20% owned by the minor gentry and 5% owned by yeomen. The remaining 5% was owned by humans mostly northmen. This land was too poor to grow crops and it was often at risk of blight. Causes There are two main faults for the cull, the first being the action taken up by the Mirkuleons as a direct punishment for the Ulachs for the Tionsach uprising in 1916 and the indirect actions of the Imperial trading laws and the consequences of various crop failures which effect both humans and Mirkuleons. The 1916 Tionsach uprising was an event were in which the Brotherhood of Ulach Freedom took over the city of Tionsach through an armed insurgency. This insurgency was defeated by the twin islands legion and the majority of its members and leaders were publically executed. Afterwards Hazarahaz ordered, that the Ulach population should be pacified through force. the Twin islands legion would encourage land owners with Ulach slaves to kill them off and replace them with Mirkuleon indentured servants. Land owners who did this were compensated for their losses. Free Ulachs and Northmen thought to be involved with the Brotherhood were sent to concentration camps to be worked to death or executed. The Imperial trading laws meant that farmers could only trade with the empire and not Donber, however this limited trade to Elderhold which gained cheaper crop imports from the Hawklands and elvenlands. It also was able to produce enough crops to feed its population and therefore had no need of crops from the twin islands.This meant that farmers became poorer and were forced to sell of land for a fraction of its price. This farmers then lived in poverty as wandering vagabounds who would starve on country lane. A mirkuleon private once remarked, "every day you see one lying by the roadside with no where to go." The most ironic part of this famine is that Donber forbid trade with the twin islands over the 1916 uprising, to protest against Mirkuleon treatment of humans. This was combined with a potato blight which caused mass starvations for all the islanders, the Twin islands goverment imported food as donations from the empire however it restricted these donations to Mirkuleon families and certain northmen families leading to starvation. Methods The main efforts in the pacification was the usage of concentration camps and death camps. Ulachs believed to be involved with rebel activies were either executed by death squads or sent to camps. Thse death squads would normally take away or execute entire villages if they believed that rebels were among them. This encouraged for most villages to refuse for rebel Ulachs to hide there preferring to sell them out. Villages and even some towns regarded as being rebel safe houses were arielly bombed along with farms considered to be helping supply the rebels. which lead to further starvation. The guards of death camps and favoured prisoners would use blunt instruments to execute prisoners and then leave their victims in mass graves Death toll The human population of the Twin islands prior to the cull was six million after the cull it fell to 1,760,000. the estimated death toll was 4,240,000 although many humans migrated from the twin islands which added further decline to the human population Aftermath